


Parent Trap (but make it supercorp)

by amangomilkshake



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Children, Alternate Universe - No Blight, Angst, Children of Characters, Domestic Fluff, F/F, F/M, Fluff, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Kara Danvers Needs a Hug, Lena Luthor Needs a Hug, M/M, Multi, SuperCorp Sunday, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-16
Updated: 2021-03-02
Packaged: 2021-03-06 00:13:21
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 14,387
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25944136
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/amangomilkshake/pseuds/amangomilkshake
Summary: Mon-El goes back in time to stop the blight from ending the future. But what happens when he changes more than just the blight?Lexa Luthor-Danvers finds herself dissolving- her own parents memories of her and any trace of her life gone. In order to keep herself from disappearing forever, she goes back in time to fix what Mon-El broke.To make sure her parents get together like they were supposed to. (And maybe kick the daxamite's ass while she's at it).
Relationships: Alex Danvers/Maggie Sawyer, James "Jimmy" Olsen/Winn Schott Jr., Kara Danvers & Lena Luthor, Kara Danvers/Lena Luthor
Comments: 33
Kudos: 173





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> full disclosure, i was totally inspired by @wtfoctagon 's "Supergirl in Training" seriously go check it out if you haven't read it . its top tier. also this is my first supercorp work so BE NICE pls

Every superhero needs a nemesis.   
Batman had the Joker, Aquaman had Blank Manta, and Superman had Lex Luthor. It was the nemesis that gave the hero a purpose- gave them something to fight against. If there was no evil to fight, then there was no point to having heroes in the first place. Kara always told her daughter that she didn’t need a nemesis to be a hero- that doing good wasn’t always about fighting evil. But, Lexa had found hers anyways.   
His name was Mon-El.   
Sure, he was nowhere near as smart as Lex or as feared as Joker- but he sure was a pain in the ass.   
They’d had the situation under control- well, as “under control” as they usually managed to get things. The DEO was a little scattered and the plans were only (as brainy so lovingly put it) 52% likely to succeed. But, Lexa didn’t remember a mission where they did have everything under control.   
Then there was dumb Mon-El and his even dumber plan to go back in time. He would take Imra and Brainy- of course he wouldn’t be taking anyone else with him like Alex or Kara or J’onn. “Because it would hurt the timeline- you can’t meet your past self,” He’d explained.   
But, being the prodigy daughter of a super and the CEO of a fortune 500 company- Lexa had known her way around the laws of quantum physics since she was a kid. Bringing her parents back to their own timeline would harm it, of course, but it was nothing they couldn’t fix. Not to mention that Mon-El and his little team weren’t the only ones that could have gone back- there was Lexa herself, who (at least to Lexa) was far superior in superhuman ability than the whiny daxamite. He had even managed to avoid bringing any of her cousins, friends or teammates- giving them the excuse that they were ‘too young’ and ‘wouldn’t be able to handle it’. Because Mon-El was so good at handling things.   
After many arguments and pleading with her parents, Mon-El had still gotten his way. He, Imra, and Brainy had been sent back in time and she had been left at home- sitting around and waiting for her timeline to change so that the Blight never happened. Her mother insisted that it was for the best- that Lexa was better off there, safe with them. She had always been too trusting, too willing to give people second chances- even if they didn’t deserve it.   
And, as much as Lexa hated him- Mon-El did get the job done.   
Not long after they had sent him, the timeline began to warp- twisting and turning so that the Blight had been stopped years ago by the team. The people they had lost slowly came back to them, and history began re-writing itself. It would have all worked out perfectly- if Mon-El had actually come back after he was done. If he had fixed the Blight and nothing else.   
Lexa didn’t have time to point the finger at her mom and give her the good old “I told you so” before things started disappearing.   
It began with her home- the beautiful old victorian her parents had bought when they found out her mom was pregnant. She had come home that day, tired and ready for the potstickers her mom had promised her at work earlier, when she walked in on a hipster couple who she’d never seen before. Her home filled with foriegn decor and a dog she’d never seen barking at her from behind them. She stumbled back down the porch steps, confusion and frustration washing over her. What could Mon-El have possibly done to make her parents move house?   
Next, it was her mother’s building- the ginormous glass skyscraper in the middle of the city. It had been there since before she’d been born- her mother’s company occupying it since 2015 (13 years before she’d been born, to be exact). She’d flown there, ready to tell her mother how she’d found strangers in their house- when she saw the logo on the building.   
Replacing the large black L for L Corp. was a red “Edge Enterprises” sign. Lexa had never heard of Edge Enterprises, and definitely had never heard her mother talk about selling her entire life’s work anytime soon. Her mother had been given that company in the prime of its downfall, and had worked for years to turn it away from the evil it had been built on. It was her legacy- before that moment, there was nothing in the world Lexa could think of that would compel her to dissolve it.   
It hadn’t fully hit her what had happened until she’d seen the statues.   
She had been making her way to the DEO - anger and hurt coming over her. Her home was gone, the company she was set to inherit had disappeared. She knew it had something to do with the past- whatever Mon-El was doing had changed her parents' decisions to buy the house and dissolve the company (or maybe move buildings, she thought hopefully). There had been small changes like these in the past few weeks, but never ones this big. Aunt Alex had a different haircut, her mother’s suit was made a different shade of blue. Uncle Winn’s favorite star wars cup had changed from red to green. Nothing major- of course, until now.   
They wouldn’t have even noticed the changes if not for each other- those who went unaffected by the change would remember how things used to be. Maggie’s memory had been rewritten to remember taking Alex to get her haircut- but it was new to J’onn. Lena had remembered being stuck in between the two shades when designing the suit with Winn- but Winn had specifically remembered her picking the darker shade. (And of course, Kara remembered Lena getting him the red cup for Christmas rather than the green).   
Before the incident, their resident tech genius Claire Schott - an identical copy of her father- had been working with the lab techs to invent a chip. Something that would let them remember what had changed. But, she had only managed to finish a prototype before the changes had begun. They could remember most things- but only as long as they were changes that didn’t directly affect them.   
They had tried to keep track of everything that had happened- stored local newspapers and printed out articles that would help them. But, the articles could only keep track of so much. The articles they kept only dated back for the past year- when the Blight had really hit them. Because the Blight was the only thing being changed- they had only had to keep track of the Blight… right?   
Once she’d seen the statues- she knew exactly what Mon-El had done.   
They stood in the park across from what used to be the L-Corp building, and Lexa had to hold back gagging just at the sight of it. There, solidified in seven feet of bronze, was her mother and Mon-El. They were in their suits, expressions immortalizing what her family had always jokingly called their “hero faces”. Of course, having a statue of the two heroes wasn’t unexpected- her mother and Mon-El had saved the city countless times. It was how they were posed that changed things- her mother clinging tightly to Mon-El, arms around his neck and looking at him like he’d hung the stars.   
She needed to talk to her mom.   
Lexa was flying to the DEO faster than she’d flown before. The wind whipping at her so fast her eyes began to water (at least that was what she was telling herself). There were a million thoughts racing through her head- if her parents were okay, if they had changed. Or worse, if they were even together.   
She found headquarters easily- thanking Rao that it was in the same place as before. She felt like she couldn’t trust her memory anymore, the last two buildings she’d been familiar with having been pulled out from under her. Lexa touched down on the launchpad, descending the dark concrete stairs as fast as she could.   
“Auntie Alex,” she sighed in relief, running towards her aunt with lightning speed. Her aunt was the same, clad in her black super suit and a tablet in her hands. Lexa tackled her in a hug, nearly knocking her over and startling the older agent. She knew her aunt would still be there- finishing the reports from the mission they’d only just come back from the hour before.   
Alex froze, her hands still and looking down at the practically sobbing teenager clinging to her with confusion. Her whole body was tense, in a deep contrast to the usual warmth Lexa knew her aunt to welcome her with. “What-”   
“Please tell me they’re okay,” Lexa sniffled, letting go of her aunt to wipe away the tears at her eyes. She could see the confusion in her aunt’s eyes, hurrying to explain. “I-I went home and there were people in there- mom’s building isn’t there anymore. Auntie th-there’s a Edge Enterprises there? And,” she felt her lip trembling as the agent tried to follow along, “there was a statue in the park and it was mom and….” Lexa stopped in the middle of her sentence, catching sight of the very woman she was looking for.   
Kara had only just come out of the debriefing room, headed towards her sister with a sort of determination. Lexa scanned over her, looking for any differences to see if her mother had changed. Her physical appearance was more or less the same- long blonde hair and blue eyes identical to Lexa’s own- the Zor-El eyes. But, her suit was off- a lousy copy of the one her mother and Winn had designed a couple years ago. The colors were wrong, and the material was not something that her mother would ever pick out. She looked….worn out. Sad, even. Nothing like the easy going and happy woman that had raised her.   
“Mom,” she sighed in relief, moving her attention from her aunt to her approaching mother. She turned to embrace her, but was stopped by Kara’s hand held out in front of her- stopping her from coming any further. Lexa raised her brows, confused. She searched her mother’s face for an explanation, “mom?”   
“Who are you?” Kara asked, her look skeptical as she watched Lexa closely. Her eyes went to Alex, who only shook her head in response.   
“She just showed up- called me aunt.”   
Lexa’s heart broke in two. It was the kind of sadness you could feel- as if somebody had wrapped their hands around her chest and squeezed as hard as they could. Her home was gone, L Corp. was gone, and now her own family wasn’t recognizing her. The confused look on her mother’s face confirmed Lexa’s worst fears.   
He had changed too much- gone too far.   
“Mom, it’s me,” she insisted, hoping that if she explained that her family would believe her. She had to force down the tears welling in her eyes, “it’s Lexa- your daughter.”   
Kara studied her for a moment, as if considering what the girl was saying to her. There was familiarity in her eyes, and Lexa knew that her mother had to recognize her at least a little bit. “I..” she shook her head, as if she was struggling with the idea, “I don’t have a daughter.”   
Alex, always the more skeptical of the two siblings, folded her arms over her chest. “Who are you really?” she questioned, and Lexa could see the gears turning in her mind. She knew her aunt- everyone was a threat until proven otherwise. She turned to Kara, “you need to be careful- Mon-El said that this would happen.”   
Kara shook her head, and Lexa grumbled knowing that of course good boy Mon-El had covered all his bases. But, her mother seemed unsure, “I don’t know Alex-” She reached forward, letting her hands fall on Lexa’s shoulders and turning her this way and that. “She doesn’t seem like a shapeshifter.”   
“Please mom,” Lexa pleaded, “you have to remember.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> little bit of a trigger warning- this chapter mentions character death :/

The interrogation room was not unfamiliar to Lexa.   
It’s dark grey walls and ugly LED lighting was actually a comforting sight- the room was one of the only things left exactly the way it had been. Her Aunt Alex had taught her how to interrogate in the same room- how to get into the mind of a perp and make them tell her what they knew. Intimidation tactics, friendly tactics, and the signature shining-the-light-directly-in-the-perp’s-face-so-that-they-suddenly-spill-their-guts move that was peppered into every detective movie she’d ever seen. Lexa let herself smile a little- remembering her first interrogation, and how absolutely awful she had been at it.   
But this time, it was her under the bright table lamp- her mother and aunt watching her suspiciously. They looked at her as if she was a bomb, seconds away from exploding. She had never seen them look at her like that before. Of course, she’d been interrogated before- her mother bringing her into the DEO once when she had raided the cookie jar at five years old. But even then Alex had struggled to keep from laughing the entire time. This time was different- this time she was a stranger in her own home.   
“So…” Alex began. She had just finished explaining everything to them- how they had sent Mon-El back to stop the Blight, but how he must have changed something so that her parents never got together. So that Lexa had never been born. “You’re saying that in an alternate timeline, you’re Kara’s daughter and we can’t remember you because the past just… suddenly changed?” she asked, clearly not believing a word she’d just said.   
“Because Mon-El changed it,” Lexa nodded, “when we sent him back to stop the blight he must have done something that made mom fall in love with…. Someone else.” When she’d retold her story to her mother and aunt, she had left some things out. It didn’t hurt this timeline to talk about the old one- to tell her mother about their house or stories from her childhood. There was nothing they could do to alter what had already passed. But… she had still left certain key details out- like who her mother was. There had been no mention of her- Kara completely confused as to who she could have possibly had a child with.   
Lexa was… afraid. Scared that her mother was gone, lost to some tragic alternate timeline without the family that loved and cared for her. She knew that before them Lena had been alone- and that the Luthors were not the best family to be left with. She could be no one, she could be living a perfectly fine life with a completely different family- she could be evil. Mentioning her mother was an inevitable event- but she found herself trying to hold off on knowing until she had to, trying to hold on to the timeline where Lena Luthor was a loving wife and an even better mother.   
“Why would he do that?” Kara asked, her eyes having never left Lexa since they’d met. Lexa knew that if anyone was going to remember her now it would be her mom- listening intently to her story and watching her with a soft expression. She had to know that something about this was true- and her actions only reflected the small hope that Lexa was holding on to. “We aren’t even together in this timeline.”   
Her expression turned sour, knowing exactly why the daxamite would do what he did. “Jealousy,” she grumbled, “that’s why he hasn’t come back yet- he’s trying to stay there until he can get a timeline where you end up with him!” Lexa found herself shouting by the end of her sentence, rage bubbling up in her chest. She clenched her fists atop the table, “he’s always been after you, mom- he never forgave you for marrying-” she caught herself, trying to wind down from the small temper tantrum, “-someone else.”   
Alex squinted at her curiously, and Lexa knew she’d caught on. Maybe not to who her mom really was, but it was obvious to both women that Lexa was hiding it. Kara, however, remained focused on the other details- still baffled by the idea of the girl in front of her being her daughter.   
“That sounds like Mon-El,” Alex admitted, sighing as she wrote something down on the piece of paper in front of her. She had been taking notes throughout the entire interrogation- probably waiting for Lexa to slip up. This was a tactic Alex had taught her as well- remembering what the bad guy said so that if he contradicted himself later they’d know he was lying. “I have to admit- this is a pretty good show you’re putting on here,” she clicked her pen on the tabletop, watching Lexa with a trained eye. “But- there’s something I can’t get over.”   
Lexa grinned, leaning forward and raising her brows- welcoming the challenge from her aunt. “Shoot,” she encouraged.   
“You want me to believe that Kara Danvers named her only daughter Lexa- the girl version of her and Clark’s number one enemy?” she asked, almost chuckling- reminding Lexa of the aunt she knew before. “My sister named her kid after Lex Luthor?”   
Lexa knew that her name would be the first thing to be questioned. It was something people had asked her about her entire life- supergirls daughter named after her sworn enemy. It was also one of the only things the siblings in front of her could call her out on. She looked just like Kara- the house of Zor-El’s bright blue eyes and the same strong features. Her blood ran Kryptonian, she had gladly submitted to a blood test that she knew had told them she was 50% Kara Danvers. It was the little things she knew she’d have to explain. She had the Danvers credentials- but the other half of her heritage still remained prominent in her personality. Everyone had always told her that when it came to her core, she was more Lena than anyone else.   
“A nickname,” she explained, smiling fondly. Her name had been one of the many examples of how she was a perfect mix of her two backgrounds- a name that carried both Danvers and Luthor meanings. “Short for Alexandra Alura L. Danvers,” she grinned knowingly at Alex, “I was named after my aunt- and my uzheiu, of course.”   
A small smile crossed Alex’s face- it did sound like something Kara would do, naming her child after her sister. Kara looked at her daughter in amazement, smiling at the use of her old language. “I taught you kryptonese?”   
“Mom insisted,” Lexa smiled, remembering her early childhood and growing up in a house with an interesting mix of two different languages. “She never really learned it for herself- she tried, but it didn’t work out for her.” Lexa began to laugh, her memory getting the better of her, “When I was little, you accidentally taught me how to swear-” she let out a loud, unfiltered giggle, “-mom was so mad at you.” She recalled Lena, arms folded and glaring sternly at a sheepish Kara, who only held her hands up in surrender and tried not to laugh at her nine year old cursing up a storm in their native language.   
Kara stared at her as if she were an alien. Lexa’s face had turned red from laughing, just like Alex used to when they were younger. She watched as the young girl sitting across from her laughed with her whole body, making a distant memory light up in Kara that she couldn’t shake- there was something familiar in her, if only she could remember what it was.   
Lexa caught herself, realizing what she’d done once it was too late. She recognized the look in her mother’s eyes- the face she made when she was focusing on something intensely. She knew that Kara could remember Lena- that somewhere in there she knew what was missing. Her laughter subsided, and a quiet enveloped the room.   
“Mom?” Kara asked, a puzzled look on her face. She seemed to be struggling to put two and two together- which would have been a funnier sight to Lexa if not for the circumstances. Her mother was often praised for her ability to sense things- to be able to “read the room” wherever she went. “I thought I was your mom?”   
It was Alex that gave it away in the end.   
Alex, who had always bragged about how she’d known the whole time. Had seen the long and agonizing looks between her sister and the CEO- had known what was in her sister’s heart before Kara herself knew it. The woman who had made a bet with Maggie over it and had won a whopping 20 dollars when the women had finally confessed. Alex, who had realized it back then and was realizing it now.   
Lexa had caught the eyes of her aunt right before she was about to speak- ready to admit that she was the daughter of the impossible. Not only the child of two women (which hadn’t happened in science before her) but also the child of the two most notorious enemies. But, the look on Alex’s face stopped her dead in her tracks.   
It was scary. Her aunt’s entire demeanor had changed, her suspicious and careful gaze replaced with a quiet and ominous one. The oldest agent swallowed thickly, “you’re really telling the truth?” she asked sincerely, as if before this had been some kind of funny game they had been playing. Her tone was hushed, much more serious than before. “Are they really your parents?”   
Lexa straightened, nodding her head. “Yes,” she answered, her voice cracking and filled with nervousness. She had been told stories about how everyone had reacted to her moms dating- the shock, the insisting that everything would fall apart. But this- this seemed different. Alex was almost...fearful- holding back the last piece of Lexa’s puzzle.   
“Wait,” Kara shook her head, completely perplexed, “I’m confused- Alex what is she talking about?” She too had recognized the look of realization on Alex’s face- always the first one to put the pieces together.   
“Lexa…” Alex began, chewing on her lip and avoiding her eyes. Lexa could feel her heart pounding in her ears- a quick glance from her mother told her that she could hear it too. The older woman’s super hearing allowing her to hear the panic coming over her daughter in waves. Alex reached across the table, laying a hand on her niece's arm- shocking the two other women in the room. Alex Danvers was rarely affectionate. “If you’re messing with us, you need to tell me right now,” she commanded, a slight edge to her voice that Lexa had never heard before.   
She nodded, her eyes wide and lip trembling, “where’s my mom, Alex?” she asked, trying to keep her voice from shaking. She had known something was wrong as soon as she’d seen the L Corp. building - her mother’s famous insignia missing from the tower’s roof. She stood up, not being able to stay still as the anxiety overcame her (another trait inherited from the CEO, she was told). “Auntie where is she?”   
Kara stood with her, worry evident on her face. “Alexandra, you need to calm down-” she started towards her, arms outstretched as if she was ready to comfort the younger girl. The use of her full name was familiar to Lexa, her mother using it throughout her childhood when she was in trouble or when things got serious. Lexa looked at her- she had seemingly caught up then, finally realizing that she wasn’t Lexa’s only mother.   
“I want to see my mom!” Lexa felt tears begin to stain her face, her voice louder than she’d meant it to be. This day had wreaked havoc on her, tearing everything she’d ever known to shreds. So, she let her mother finally do something she remembered. She let Kara pull her in, holding her daughter to her chest tightly. Lexa felt relief wash over her- the all too natural warmth enveloping her as her mother hugged her. She smelled the same- laundry detergent and printer paper. She briefly wondered if her mom still worked at Catco- if she was still a reporter when she wasn’t saving the world like she was in Lexa’s timeline.   
Kara smoothed back her hair, letting her motherly instincts take over. Lexa wasn’t sure where she would have gotten the instincts from, her not being a mother in this timeline and all- but she appreciated them all the same. “We’ll find her, Lexa,” she promised, taking a deep breath and letting it fall, “I don’t remember everything- but I….” she struggled for a second before continuing. “I know that I know you- I know something’s missing. We’re gonna figure it out- you and me. I promise.”   
She knew her mother meant well. That was what Supergirl did- what Kara Danvers did. She saved people, even if she didn’t know them. Her entire life Kara had told her that everyone deserved at least a chance- that was how her parents had come together in the first place, because Kara gave her mom a chance. When nobody else believed in Lena, Kara was there- and now, when nobody else remembered Lexa, Kara would be there for her too.   
“Lexa…” Lexa practically jumped when she felt Alex’s hand on her back, her aunt having stood from the table and come to stand in front of them. The affection was meant to be comforting, but it scared Lexa more than anything. Her aunt was only ever affectionate when something was wrong. She met Alex’s eyes- waiting for the news that her mom was halfway across the world or rotting in a jail cell somewhere. “I want to help you- really, I do- but…..” she sighed, shaking her head, “I can’t.”   
“You can’t?” Lexa asked, swallowing nervously.   
“We can’t?” Kara repeated, looking at her sister with confusion. “Alex, I’m sure whoever she is we can find her- yes, it’s confusing but we at least have to try.” There she was again, being everyone’s hero. Lexa let herself smile a little- some things about her mother could never change, no matter the timeline. She briefly remembered all the times her mother promised she’d be there for her, no matter what kind of trouble they were in.   
And Kara Danvers always kept a promise.   
Alex smiled sadly at the two- her sister and supposed daughter both staring at her with the same blue eyes. “Kara,” she sighed, nodding her head towards Lexa, “it’s not…..” She paused, as if searching for the right words. Lexa knew then that wherever her mother was- it wasn’t good. “It’s not possible.”   
That seemed to strike a chord in Kara, her body tensing immediately. She looked at her daughter- studying her features intensely. She held her hands up to Lexa’s face, turning her head this way and that before letting out a final sigh. “I know you,” she said after minutes of silence, her eyes beginning to water. “I knew I recognized you, but I couldn’t put my finger on it until now.” She smiled sadly, tucking a stray hair behind Lexa’s ear. “You look just like her, you know.”   
Lexa nodded, letting a small chuckle escape her lips, “I know,” she admitted, “you tell me all the time.” She saw the familiar sadness in her mom’s eyes- the one she had when she was saving an innocent. “Is she okay, mom?”   
Kara’s smile faltered, biting her lip. She moved to hug Lexa again, squeezing her tightly. “No, kiddo- she’s-” she let a tear roll down her cheek, staining the perfect kryptonian complexion. “I’m so sorry- it’s my fault.”   
“Kara, it’s not your fault,” Alex began, shaking her head.   
But, Kara cut her off, trying to comfort her daughter as much as she could before she had to break the young girl’s heart. “Lexa, in this timeline….” she took a deep breath. “Lena Luthor died ten years ago.”


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> i PROMISE there will be an uploading schedule soon. but for now, enjoy this new chapter (:

Lexa felt the sadness like she could feel a wave crashing into her.   
The interrogation room was getting smaller- filling up with water and engulfing her in this terrible nightmare, her mother gone and never coming back. It pooled at her ankles, anchoring her to the concrete floors so that she couldn’t move. She felt it rise to her chest, cold and numbing until her heartbeat rang in her ears like a siren. It quickly came up over her head, filling up her lungs so that she couldn’t breathe- drowning her in an inescapable sadness.   
Lena Luthor died ten years ago.   
“No.” She shook her head, maybe if she pretended she hadn’t heard them then the words would lose truth. Her breath came to her in short, fleeting spurts- her heart beating erratically. It was different when it’d been her home, when it had been her mother’s building- but her mother? She didn’t know how to fix this, she couldn’t bring someone back to life.   
“Lexa..” her mom began, trying to soothe her in any way she could. She only shook her head, backing away from the hero and into the wall.   
“No!” She trembled, her voice cracking- startling her mother and aunt. She continued shaking her head, tears falling down her face. “My mom’s not dead!” she insisted, hoping that if she believed the words then maybe they would become true. “I saw her this morning,” she tried to recall it, but she found her memory was hazing. “I saw her this morning-” she repeated, trying to hang on to the memory.   
“Lexa?” Alex asked, her tone laced with concern. She took a step forward cautiously, as if she was afraid of moving too fast and scaring the younger girl.   
She was quiet, straining to remember her mother. What she looked like, what she sounded like- who she had been. “My mom’s……” her eyes widened in fear, unable to come up with the answers that should have been right there. “Gone.” She looked to her mother and her aunt, her confusion becoming overwhelming.   
Three hours ago her life had been perfect- two healthy parents, good grades, friends, a team at the DEO. Now, she didn’t know how much of it was left. If her mother was gone- who else was gone? And when were they going to take her with them?   
“Lexa, I’m so sorry,” Kara whispered, “It was my fault- she died in an explosion,” she began explaining. “There was a threat to L Corp, somebody called in a bomb but your mom,she-” Kara smiled fondly, as if recalling a distant memory. “-she refused to leave, said she wasn’t going anywhere until all her employees were safe outside. We almost had them all when it went off.”   
Lexa scoffed through tears, “of course she did.” Her mother would throw herself in front of a perfect stranger, for no good reason. Loyalty above all, her mother had always told her. It was a trait that her entire family seemed to have.   
Kara chuckled lowly as she stepped forward, slowly pulling her daughter back into her embrace. “Your mother was one of the bravest people I had ever met- she didn’t hesitate for a second putting those people’s lives in front of her own.” She pulled back a few inches and looked at the girl’s face. “You look just like her, you know?”   
It was true, Lexa had always heard that she was almost a perfect carbon copy of her mother. She had Lena’s dark hair, her strong jaw and near immaculate posture- her mother’s bright smile. Kara had told her throughout her entire life how she and Lena were ‘two peas in a pod’. If not for the Zor-El blue eyes and Kara’s tall build, they would have been twins.   
“Don’t tell me you’ve got the attitude to match,” Alex joked, her smile fading at the knowing smirk her niece gave her in response. She shook her head and groaned, attempting to give Lexa a playful punch on the shoulder, but pulling back a reddened fist. “Jesus, there’s two of you!”   
“Sorry,” Lexa felt her cheeks redden in embarrassment, remembering something her aunt had said once.“The Luthor brains and the Danvers brawn.”   
Kara laughed, and Lexa could feel a spark of warmth in her chest. She still had her mom- this mom, with her now. Kara’s face had lit up, looking proudly at her daughter and the display of her kryptonian side. “That sounds like something Alex would say.”   
Lexa smiled and let her eyes turn to her aunt, arms crossed over her chest and smiling at them sadly. “It was actually Aunt Maggie- is she okay?” She felt her heartbeat pick back up again, wondering how many others could be gone in this timeline. “Was it only my mom? Is everybody else still here?”   
“Maggie’s fine, honey- though the uh, aunt part didn’t make it through,” Alex assured her ears turning pink at the mention of her old girlfriend, “who is everyone else?” She could see the young super beginning to panic again and quickly moving to calm her. A strange fondness for her supposed niece was settling in her, as if it had been there all along and she just… hadn’t remembered it. “Here- why don’t you tell us about your timeline, and we’ll fill you in on what’s happened in ours. We can trade off.”   
Kara nodded, rushing to soothe her daughter alongside Alex, “we can go through it- together.”   
And they did- the bleak interrogation room traded for Kara’s cozy one bedroom apartment. Alex drove a car in this timeline, she found out- having traded her beloved bike years ago. Her mother had never moved out of the loft she’d lived in before moving in with Lena- Lexa guessed without her mother, Kara had no reason to move out. It made her realize how much her mom must have missed out on without the Luthor. Lexa was sat on the baby blue couch and watched obediently as Alex set up her DEO tablet, connecting it to her mother’s television so they could see the files as they were pulled up. Kara   
When they were ready, Lexa had begun to list them off one by one- asking her mother and aunt about everyone she could think of. Most people were more or less the same- Eliza and her uncle Clark being almost exactly as they’d been in Lexa’s timeline. (Though of course in this one Eliza was still berating her children over her lack of grandkids.) Clark was still married to Lois, and Lexa’s cousin Jon had made it through to this reality.  
It turned out that everyone else had become drastically different- surprising Lexa with how much Mon-El could change by staying in the past for a few seconds longer than he should have. None of the married couples she’d grown up around had made it- and she listened intently as her mother told her their timelines one after another. She asked them questions- and let them ask her questions in return, the sisters marvelling over how different the timelines were.   
“Winn has a daughter?” Kara had asked incredulously- as if her best friend having a child was the most outlandish thing Lexa could have come up with. It was the first question she’d asked, having listened silently up until then.   
Lexa nodded, “Claire’s the DEO’s youngest tech genius in history- and my best friend,” she smiled. They didn’t know it, but this was one of Lexa’s greatest feats- Claire Schott hated most people, and was famously introverted. Her friendship was hard to come by, and it had taken Lexa many tries to gain it. “He and Uncle James adopted her when I was 14.”   
Alex chuckled, “I knew there was something going on between those two.” Of course she did- Alex always knew everything before the rest of them.   
“In our world, James moved back to Metropolis a little bit after we defeated the world enders,” Kara explained as Alex pulled up his picture on the screen. He looked the same, but the notes in his file were new to Lexa- his reporter job at the Daily Planet, his wife Lucy, and his photography career slowly flattening out.   
Lexa shook her head, “he doesn’t run Catco?” She couldn’t imagine the man she’d known giving up his spot leading National City’s newspaper.   
Alex shook her head, “he said that he just missed it back home- gave the company back to Lena, your mom, and left.”   
Lexa hummed, watching her aunt with careful eyes. “And what about Aunt Maggie?” She looked from her mother to her aunt, “You guys really didn’t end up together?”   
Alex sighed, swiping the tablet until an old photo of her old fiancee was displayed. “After we called off the engagement, we-”   
“Called off the engagement?” Lexa gaped, “you mean you guys got as far as getting engaged and still didn’t end up together?” An almost angry look crossed her face, making the women in front of her laugh.   
“She didn’t want kids,” Alex gave her niece a tight-lipped smile. She remembered when Maggie left like it was yesterday. Lexa could tell this was a hard subject for her aunt- and she didn’t blame her, in her timeline Maggie was her aunt’s world.   
Lexa giggled knowingly, “she sure seemed to like Jeremiah just fine.” She stopped laughing, as if she’d said something she wasn’t supposed to. Her eyes dropped to the floor, and she refused to meet her aunt’s eyes. It was quiet for a while before she spoke again, “but I guess he’s gone too, huh?”   
“Jeremiah?” Alex asked, her voice coming out much smaller than she’d meant it to. Lexa watched as her mom put a hand on her aunt’s shoulder comfortingly.   
Lexa smiled, remembering her cousin. She’d seen him only hours before- decked out in his black supersuit and electric night sticks. She let her eyes wander to her aunt- who sat in the chair across from her. Her shoulders were slumped, eyes set on the floor and beginning to water. Her mom had told her how much Alex had always wanted to be a mom. Lexa began to look around, searching for a piece of paper in the small apartment.   
She found one easily, picking up a pen off of the coffee table and sitting in front of it- maybe her mother was still a reporter. She began to draw- of course, she was no artist, but she tried her best. She began with a square, and attempted to draw her cousin inside it. He was much better looking than her lopsided stick figure, but she hoped her aunt got the point. “Jeremiah Sawyer-Danvers,” she spoke aloud as she labeled the top of her paper with the name. She wracked her brain, trying to think of what his notes would say if he had a file. What she came up with was not nearly as detailed as a DEO commissioned file. 

\- 21 years old   
\- red hair, brown eyes   
\- super bossy   
\- electrocuted my boyfriend freshman year  
\- lieutenant of the group 

She held the paper up to her aunt, who looked at her skeptically before taking it into her hands. She laughed, “I take it they don’t let you write the mission reports where you’re from?”   
Lexa laughed with her, shaking her head. “Miah doesn’t let me go near the desks - apparently I don’t have the patience for paperwork.” She felt her cheeks tint a slight red. Ivy league? No problem. But a DEO report? She’d rather jump off a cliff.   
“You get that from your mother,” Alex chuckled, her eyes not so subtly moving to Kara- who was equally as red-faced as her daughter. “I’m sorry, does this say that my son electrocuted your boyfriend?” Alex asked, her eyebrows raised in the classic Alex look she’d seen many times (mostly when they were caught making trouble.) She turned the paper around in her hands and pointed at the scribbled note written under his stick figure.  
“You have a boyfriend?” Kara asked, even more accusatory than her sister. She looked at her daughter with a stern face- the protective mother in her resurfacing.   
“I have an ex boyfriend,” Lexa clarified, looking pointedly at Alex, “thanks to said electrocuting.” She smiled, remembering the memory easily. She had never let her cousin live it down. “His name was Carter. Miah never liked him- and we thought it was just him being his usual self. He’s always been like my big brother, really protective and stuff. I…. kind of found out he was cheating on me.”   
“He what?” Kara’s chest immediately puffed out, her eyes darkening. “You think he still exists in this timeline?” She spoke just like the mother Lexa had always known- overly protective and quick to fight anybody that came near her family.   
Lexa rolled her eyes as Alex laughed, “Mom, jeez- by the time you found out you couldn’t do anything- Miah sort of….sent him to the hospital.” She grinned, “he got in so much trouble for it.”   
Kara shook her head and snorted, her arm around her daughter’s shoulders. “Sounds like your aunt when we were younger.” Kara recalled fondly her memories of Alex fiercely interrogating every boyfriend she’d ever had.   
Alex smiled sadly, “the more we find out the more it sounds like we got the wrong end of the timeline stick.”   
Lexa couldn’t help but agree with her. The more she found out about the timeline Mon-El had created, the more she hated it. Her mother was gone, her uncles living their separate and sad lives, her aunts on different paths and her friends and cousin gone. Neither of them looked like they were living the happy lives she had seen in her own timeline. She could feel a dull ache in her chest- she’d never thought about the impact she’d had on her parent’s lives.   
Of course, neither of her mothers ever missed the chance to tell her as much. Kara stopped her after almost every mission to tell her daughter how proud she was, and Lena framing any school certificate her child could bring home.  
She began to think about her home- the beautiful brownstone that now belonged to the hipster couple. The fridge covered in her school forms, the pictures that hung on the walls. Her mothers’ room with the cool blue and gray tones, her entire house a perfect mix of Lena’s modern and Kara’s rustic. Her own room, decorated in-  
Her heart began to ring in her ears.   
She was blanking, her thoughts coming up empty when she searched for the details of her own bedroom. She knew there was a bed- decorations on the wall, a desk she would do her homework on. It was the specifics that were gone from her mind. What color were her walls? Her bedsheets? What miscellaneous items lay around her room?   
“Mom?” she called out, Kara’s attention immediately on her. Her eyes looked at the woman sitting in front of her, “what’s going to happen to me?”   
Her mother was silent, confirming Lexa’s worries- that they didn’t know.   
She had no home- no parents. Yes, Kara was right in front of her, but this woman wasn’t her mom. There was no longer any existing memory of her in this timeline- there was nowhere for her to go. She could try to blend into this timeline, but how long could that last?   
She could hear Lena’s voice in her head, faint like it was coming from another room. If something is out of place, the universe does everything it can to put things back. It was common sense- small talk made at the kitchen counter as her mother made dinner. Lexa strained to remember it- her mother’s face was blurry, but Lexa could see the sleeves of a white dress shirt rolled to the elbows. Two sets of dark raven hair pulled back into ponytails- one neat, the other messy. She was practically leaning over the countertop, ap physics homework sprawled out in front of her. The two luthor women talking idly about the theories of quantum physics as they waited for Kara to get home.   
Her mother’s words repeated over and over in her head.   
The universe will do everything it can to put things back, and in this universe- Lexa was the one thing out of place. Long dinnertime conversations she had once been fond of were now coming back to haunt her.   
“Lexa,” her mom said gently, approaching her as if she were made of porcelain. “In our timeline, the only experience we have with time travel is sending Mon-El back to stop the World Enders. Even then, he supplied us with the technology to make that possible.”   
“I’m not sure how it’s possible that you’re even here right now,” Alex chimed in. Her aunt being the nerd that she was, Lexa could see the gears turning in her head to try and work out the possibilities. “If in our timeline you were never born- or even close to being born, really- you shouldn’t still be here. Did something happen to you?” She was back in interrogation mode now, speaking quickly and intensely. “Did you have to go through some loop or come from a different world?”   
Lexa shook her head, “nothing was different- I took the train home from the DEO and when I got home strangers were in my house and my stuff was gone.” She didn’t remember anything out of the ordinary- no flashing lights or portal jumping. She had just been coming home, like every other day.   
“I’m sorry kiddo,” Alex apologized, “but I’m not sure how long this can last- either our universe might collapse on itself, or you could disappear entirely.”   
“Or everything could be fine?” Kara asked, hope laced into her words. Lexa looked at her mom with sad eyes, though they’d only known each other for a few hours- it was clear that Lexa was Kara’s daughter. That, even if a different version of her had raised her, Kara still cared about the girl. She knew that part of her mom (and herself) was hopeful that she could stay there, a paradox stuck in an alternate timeline.   
The look in her aunt’s eyes told her that the scenario wasn’t likely.   
“I’m so sorry,” Alex repeated, not knowing what to say.   
Kara huffed, frustration taking over her as she shook her head. “Isn’t there some way to fix it, Alex?” the words came out more pleading than questioning. “I mean, Mon-El figured out how to mess with the timeline, can’t we mess with it to put it back?”   
Lexa began to smile- something she had always loved about her mother was her inability to give up. Of course, “mess with it” and “put it back” would not have been the terms Lexa herself would have used, but she was guilty of hoping the same thing.   
“Kara, it’s much more complicated than that.”   
“But Alex we can’t just sit by while Lexa - my daughter - just disappears!”   
“I don’t want to see her go either, Kara, but messing with time isn’t just something we can do in our spare time. If the timeline has already been tampered with enough to change as much as Lexa’s told us, it will be very fragile!”   
Her mother and her aunt went back and forth, their voices raised and arms flinging around as they talked. Lexa sat and watched them, the two women who she knew but didn’t really know. The same people, different lives. A million theories ran through her head- her aunt was right, the timeline would be very fragile. But, Lexa liked to think she knew enough about quantum physics to be able to dance around those cracks Mon-El had made. If she was careful- very careful- she just might be able to do it.   
“What if you sent me back?”


	4. CHAPTER 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> lots of fluff in this one (: hope ya'll enjoy it

“Absolutely not.”   
“But mom-”   
“No,” Kara insisted, her voice firm when scolding her daughter. “I am not sending my kid into some wormhole and hope that will fix everything.”   
“But mom, I-”   
“No, Alexandra, it’s too dangerous.” Lexa stopped in her tracks, her mother’s voice knocking her off her train of thought. She sounded exactly as she should have- the stern, “I’m-not-budging-on-this” tone and the way she looked at her as if Kara knew her daughter wouldn’t give up. How she would use Lexa’s full name in only the most serious of circumstances. Lena used to laugh when she would catch them in an argument.   
Two from the house of Zor-El, equal in stubbornness and strength, butting heads.   
“What else will I do? Stay here until I disappear?” Lexa knew that was the conclusion they’d come to. That as Lexa’s memories rapidly faded in this timeline, so would she. Once the idea of going back had come to her, she knew this was what she had to do. It was the only way.   
“We don’t know that will happen,” Kara argued. It was a frail argument- there were millions of examples happening right in front of them that said it would happen. “Lexa, what if you go back and the timeline is too frail to support you?”   
“It’s a risk I have to take mom,” Lexa saw an in- her mother not as versed on the laws of time travel as much as she and Lena were. “Besides, I will last longer in that timeline than in this one!”   
“She’s right on that,” Alex finally chimed in from her place at her microscope. Lexa had managed to drag her mom and aunt to the DEO, in hopes that her aunt could find some way to take her back a couple years. Kara had been adamant that she was against the idea, but let her daughter drag her to the labs in hopes that Alex would find no way to send the girl back.   
Kara groaned, “who’s side are you on?”   
Alex shrugged, and turned to the two beside her. Kara, hands on her hips and looking at her daughter as if there was no way she was going to let her win this one. And Lexa, hands on her hips and mirroring her mother’s look back at her. “In this timeline, the possibility of Lexa being born is 0%. There is no way at all that she could ever exist in this timeline- which means the timeline is fighting against her here the most. The farther we send her back- the less the timeline fights against her because it’s more possible that she exists. If we send her back, the possibility of her being born is up at least 50%.”   
Kara’s look changed, and Lexa recognized her thinking face. “Because Lena’s there,” she added, seeming to understand what her sister was trying to tell her.   
Alex nodded, and Lexa was quick to pipe in and help convince her mom. “If you send me back, I can make sure that you and mom end up together- it will fix the timeline and I should be able to come right back to the correct timeline.”   
Alex squinted her eyes, shaking her head. “It’s very unlikely that you’ll be able to recreate your exact timeline- by sending you back, we’re already changing everything. Will you probably still be born? Yes. But, you could be drastically different.”   
Lexa sighed, she knew that her aunt would be harder to convince than her mother. Her mom was protective- but Alex was all about facts. If the facts didn’t line up right, there was no way she would be on board. “Auntie, what’s the worst that could happen? I have blonde hair instead of black- I go to a different primary school?”   
“That could change much more than you can calculate, ukiem,” Kara’s tone was softer, taking careful note of the desperation creeping into Lexa’s voice. She put a hand on her shoulder, the familiar kryptonese comforting the younger girl.  
“But it’s better than not existing at all,” she countered.   
Her mother was quiet after that, her expression contemplative and silent. She sighed, rubbing the bridge of her nose in frustration.   
“Mom does that.” Kara looked up to see her daughter staring back at her, eyebrows perched in confusion. Lexa pointed at her face, bringing her fingers to pinch the bridge of her own nose lightly in demonstration. “Mom does that all the time, when she’s in the lab. Sometimes when I get in trouble.”   
Kara smiled, “she did do that a lot, didn’t she?” She could remember Lena’s face, contorted from a long day of stressful board meetings and company business. She would lean over her desk and pinch her nose, though her smile would always reappear as soon as she saw Kara. She looked at her daughter, and knew that same smile had been awarded to her. Kara let herself imagine it- her daughter wandering into the old L Corp labs to pester Lena until they could go home. “She still runs that company where you’re from, huh?”   
Lexa rolled her eyes, “she spends hours there, I don’t know why. L Corp is one of the biggest empires in the world- but she acts like leaving before 5 will kill her.” Lexa had spent hours out of the day in the L Corp. If her mother was in a meeting, she’d be at Jess’ desk doing her homework and helping the assistant update her instagram. If her mother was in her office finishing paperwork, she’d be sprawled out on the white couch with a book. If her mother was in the labs, she was at her designated desk in the corner (she kept trying to help with her mother’s experiments, but after a couple of accidental explosions she was banned to her own desk).   
“That sounds like Lena,” Kara chuckled.   
Lena’s death had, of course, been hard on her. She had spent the first couple of days tearing the building apart, praying to Rao that somewhere under the rubble the woman was there- waiting to be rescued. The next years going by had been harder- watching L Corp crumble and Lena’s name plastered in the papers as the public “mourned” her.   
Kara had loved Lena, but had never told her to her face. Had always been too mixed up in what was going on around her to tell her best friend the truth. At first, she couldn’t imagine this insanely different timeline - one where her long gone friend was her wife. One where they lived together and had this family together- one where she was happy. But now it was all she could think about.   
Her thoughts were interrupted by the very girl who had brought these thoughts- her daughter had abruptly crashed into her, arms wrapping around Kara and her head pressed against the house crest of her suit. Kara’s instincts immediately kicked in, wrapping her arms around Lexa and moving to comfort her.   
“We can get her back…. Right, mom?” Lexa’s voice was small, and Kara knew all too well what the fear of losing someone you loved sounded like.   
Kara held her daughter tightly, “of course, kiddo,” she knew this was something she couldn’t promise. They weren’t sure that they could send her back in time, much less guarantee that she’d be able to fix things. Kara remembered who she was 30 years ago- and she knew it would be much harder to convince 2019 Kara than it’d been to convince 2047 Kara. But, she wasn’t going to tell Lexa that. Her daughter was clinging to her here and now- a young girl that just wanted to go home, that just wanted to see her mom again. Kara knew all too well what that was like. “Everything’s going to be okay.”   
“I’ve got something,” Alex snapped them out of their reverie, both Zor-El’s rushing to try and look over Alex’s shoulders. The oldest Danvers in the room rolling her eyes at the younger two. “The technology you’re trying to use is old, but with the right tools we might actually be able to do it.” She watched the young girl’s face light up and shook her head, “Don’t start celebrating just yet- I wouldn’t even know where to begin looking for this stuff.”   
Lexa was quick to begin shuffling Alex’s papers around, holding them up to her face and squinting at them. “Time travel wasn’t invented until even after I was born- and then right after it was, the Legion,”she said it with a clear distaste, as if the Legion had personally wronged her. Kara guessed that in a way, they had. “They took it from her- mom, I mean. It was L Corp’s tech that had made it all possible.” She put one of the papers down in front of Alex and pointed at a lopsided and smudged blueprint of what looked like a metal device. “This is what we need” she stated proudly, and when her daughter smiled triumphantly at her- all she could see was Lena.   
It was the same bright and brilliant smile that Lena had when she’d solved a particularly difficult problem. Her daughter looked so much like Lena, it was startling- and she was surprised she had taken her so long to put it together. The way she looked- the way she spoke, always so confident in what she was saying.   
Alex scoffed, “good luck getting it-” she stopped, her tone changing from teasing to gentle. “Any blueprints for tech this important was tucked away in the L Corp labs- it couldn’t have survived.”   
Lena had always kept her most dangerous and most valuable projects in her personal lab. Anything that could hurt someone was kept as close and classified as Lena could get it. But, being the Luthor’s daughter had its perks. Lexa spent her entire life in that lab, and Lena had never shied away from any questions. Her mother had indulged her in hours of conversation, merely excited that her daughter would be interested in complex scientific theories (but should she have expected any less from a Luthor?) Anything that Lena could fix, Lexa could fix. “L Corp’s time traveling technology was based off the DEO’s portal tech- if I can get my hands on the prints for this device and a portal device- I should be able to do it.”   
“I’m not sure we have it,” Alex admitted.   
“Did the DEO ever recover any resources from the explosion at L Corp?” Lexa asked, clearly uncomfortable at the mention of the explosion.   
“Some machinery, a couple of hard drives- nothing whole though, everything had been broken,” Kara answered immediately. She had torn through the wreckage herself, peeling back pillars and charred concrete until her hands bled. She hadn’t slept that entire week- dedicating any and all of her free time to the search and rescue. Anything they had found, Kara remembered.   
“We should still have them,” Alex supplied, pulling her chair over to the lab’s computer and beginning to type into the database. “Even if we do- you really think you can make something out of it?” She seemed to find something and began to scribble notes onto a nearby pad of paper. “Winn and I combed over those files ourselves- anything that was worth a damn was password protected.”   
Lexa scoffed, “please- my mom has the same password for everything.”   
Alex held up the paper and stood, “wait here,” she instructed as she headed towards the lab’s double doors. At the doors, she paused, looking back at the two women with a skeptical gaze as if she knew they were up to no good. “Don’t touch anything,” she ordered, and Lexa smiled. She didn’t blame her aunt- leaving her alone with her mother was sometimes (most of the time) a dangerous game to play.   
Kara turned to her, finally alone with her daughter for the first time.   
“Can I ask you something?” Lexa was taken aback by the softness in her mother’s voice- as if she were nervous. Kara looked at her with curious eyes- as if she had been embarrassed to say something in front of Alex.   
Lexa smiled and nodded, “yeah mom- what’s up?”   
“Your…. Mom and I- our family… are we happy?”   
Lexa paused. Of course, she should have anticipated this- obviously her mother would want to know about her relationship with Lena. She had figured her mom would have a hard time wrapping her head around a relationship that she’d never had in this timeline. But- she had never thought about this question.   
“I-” she began, but closed her mouth almost as soon as she’d opened it. “It won’t make you sad?” She worried about her mom then- what if they couldn’t get the timeline back? She would spend the rest of her own timeline wondering about what could have been. Was it safe to tell her these things?   
Kara smiled sadly, “you don’t have to answer that-” she was quick to shut the question down, as if she had been expecting the answer to be bad from the beginning.   
Lexa rushed to stop her- she knew that it was risky telling her mom about the life Lexa knew her to have. Not that it could mess up the timeline or cause some big cosmic rift- but because she could break her own mother's heart. But, she wouldn’t let her mom sit there and think that they had been anything other than happy.  
“Of course we’re happy,” she let herself laugh a little. She had seen her parents fight, of course she had, but she had never seen them unhappy. Lexa had been surrounded by loving people her entire life- her aunts, her uncles, her cousin, her friends. Out of everyone, she had never seen any two people that loved each other more than her moms. She remembered something that Kara herself had told her once. “Mom- are you kidding? You guys have the greatest love story of all time! A super and a Luthor, destined to be enemies.” Lexa snorted, “you and mom were basically obsessed with each other as soon as you met- everybody says so.”   
The superhero watched her daughter finally begin to relax- leaving behind the worries of getting back and the sadness of losing her timeline in favor of bragging about her parents. Kara watched as Lexa talked, her eyes wide and smile full as she poked fun at her mother. She saw even more of it then- the undeniable fact that this girl was her daughter. The way she talked about her home was how Kara talked about Krypton- the way she excitedly gestured with her hands the way Lena would when she was excited about a new project. Kara could feel her own heart warm at the sight of her child, happy and carefree.   
Kara rolled her eyes at her exaggerating daughter, “I don’t know what happened in your timeline-but in this one, your mother and I were not obsessed with each other.” She smiled, thinking about how this girl really was proof of what Kara and Lena had fought for since the beginning. Luthors and Supers could put the rift of their families aside and be friends- more than friends apparently.   
“Did she still do that thing where she sent like a billion flowers to your office?”   
“Well yes, but-” Kara remembered it, the postal worker bringing up several elevators full of beautiful flowers.   
“Did she still buy an entire newspaper company that she didn’t need just so you could keep your job after Grandma Grant quit? You know that normal friends don’t buy entire companies for each other right?” Lexa argued. And Rao, if she didn’t inherit Lena’s ability to win any argument she got herself into.   
“She did not buy it just for me- wait,” Kara paused and snorted, a sound identical to the one her daughter had made only minutes before. “Grandma Grant?” The idea of Cat Grant being anything close to a grandmother figure to her daughter was laughable, to say the least.   
Lexa shrugged, as if what she said hadn’t been the most absurd thing Kara had ever heard. “What else would I call her? She sends me cards on my birthday and comes every Christmas- though she does call me Tiny Kiera. When I ask you why you just laugh.”   
Kara smiled, remembering her old nickname. In her own timeline, she hadn’t heard from Cat in years. “You’ve got quite the family, huh kid?” Every time she learned something new about her daughter’s timeline, the more she was convinced it was some kind of dream. If she was telling the truth- anything that could have gone right in Kara’s life had happened in Lexa’s timeline.   
In this time, Kara had not been nearly as lucky.   
Lexa nodded, sighing and letting her head come to rest in her hands as if she were exasperated. “You know, you’re kind of a hot mess without mom here.” The words themselves made Kara chuckle, but the way Lexa had said it broke her heart. At that moment, Kara would have done anything to get her daughter’s mother back.   
She smiled sadly, “I guess I kind of am- I’m sorry, kiddo.” She wondered if Lexa would have been better off with Lena helping her instead of Kara. How the timeline would have been if she were still alive. Lexa had said herself that the first place she’d tried to run to was L Corp- whether that was because of its proximity or her preference in parents- Kara would never know.   
Lexa shrugged, “it’s okay.” Then, as if her daughter had been reading her mind, she spoke again. “Can you imagine if it was her here?” she giggled, “I’d be screwed.”   
Kara gave her a look, “language,” she scolded playfully, mirroring her daughter and beginning to spiral around the lab in her own chair. “And I’m sure your mother would have handled this better than I have.” She thought of Lena then, calm and collected- even under the most intense pressure.   
Lexa raised her brows, “I love mom, but seriously- she would have kicked me to the curb in seconds. Especially if she hadn’t had you to turn her into Lena Luthor, biggest softie ever.” She mimicked talking to Lena, her voice higher than usual. “Hey mom, its me- your daughter who you don’t remember- oh, can I just slip into your lab and borrow some of your top secret technology for a second?” She rolled her eyes, “yeah right.”   
“I’m sure you could have convinced her,” Kara insisted, though she couldn’t help but feel proud to be the parent that Lexa could come to. Kara had always worried about having kids- wondering how she could ever be a good mother when she had only had her own for such a short amount of time. But, from what she could tell from the smiling girl in front of her- she wasn’t half bad at the whole “motherhood” thing. Of course, in Lexa’s world she’d had Lena by her side to help. “It helps that you’re practically her twin.”   
Lexa rolled her eyes, but smiled all the same, “you know that mom says I look just like you, right?” It was true- both of her mothers always told her how much she looked like the other.   
“It’s the eyes.”   
The two younger Danvers looked up to see the oldest re-entering the room, a dark suitcase under her arms. Alex stopped to take the scene in- Lexa and Kara sitting backwards on their chairs and using their legs to push off the lab tables and roll themselves across the white tiles.   
Lexa really was her sister’s daughter.   
“If either of you break my tables, it won’t be the timeline you’ll have to worry about,” she threw an accusatory look at the two. Alex hoisted the suitcase up onto the counter and clicked the latches, opening it and beginning to take out the contents.   
Lexa felt her heart drop into her stomach as Alex laid out the items on the table in front of them. There were some hard drives and three or four pieces of miscellaneous hardware. Lexa let herself sort through it haphazardly- all that was left of her mother in this timeline, and it all fit into a single suitcase. Lexa could vaguely recognize some of the metal pieces- they were mostly lead, the metal her mother would use to handle kryptonite. The drives were badly damaged, the inserts chipped and the drives themselves crushed in certain areas. She felt her mother’s hand fall on her shoulder comfortingly.   
“This was everything we could salvage from the L Corp incident- Winn and I tried to tackle the drives, but as I said before, they were all password protected.” She seemed annoyed at the memory- and Lexa didn’t blame her. Her mother was annoyingly secretive about her company’s details- because everyone and their mother was trying to get their hands on L Corp tech, the security was something the Pentagon would be jealous of.   
“You didn’t let Brainy have a go at it?” she asked, pushing off the table with her legs so that she could roll herself to the computer on the other side of her aunt. She picked up one of the drives, turning it over in her hands carefully. She knew Brainy could have at least peeked at some of her mother’s files- and out of the League members she was acquainted with, he was the only one she didn’t hate.   
Alex shook her head, a sadness taking over her expression. “When Le-” she sighed, running her hands through her hair. “When your mom was still alive, the DEO had banned all personnel from hacking L Corp- my sort of… sign of respect after she helped us out with the world enders. She and Brainy kind of had this running joke- that someday she would need something and return she’d let him try and hack her for fun.” She smiled, “We asked him for his help, but after your mom died- he refused. Said that he couldn’t do it without Lena’s permission.”   
“It was his way of honoring her,” Kara explained, a voice of comfort after the heart aching story. Lexa briefly wondered if her mother knew in this timeline how much her friends had cared about her.   
She made a mental note to remember this, to tell her own mother when she got back to her. (Right after suffocating her in the biggest hug Lexa could manage.)   
Lexa turned the hard drive over in her hand once more before plugging it into the computer. She needed to get home- even if she didn’t get back to her own timeline, she would figure out a way to rewrite this one. It was awful, a world without her mother.   
The files were, as her aunt had said, password protected. She had managed to open the drive’s contents- able to see how many files there were, the dates on them and what they were labeled. But, clicking on the files themselves was where her family had run into trouble. As soon as Lexa had tried to open them, a small green box popped up on the screen- asking for the password to open them.   
“If you end up remembering any of this- please do not tell mom that her password is not as secret as she thinks it is,” Lexa smirked, glancing back at her mother before typing in the two words she had memorized since her teens.   
At first, the computer did nothing- a gray loading sign spinning on the screen agonizingly. Then, a small pinging sound, and the file was opened- pages of paperwork on some secret lab project her mother didn’t trust the company with.   
Lexa turned in her chair, grinning triumphantly at her mother and aunt. “Piece of cake.”   
Kara laughed, reaching forward to ruffle her daughter’s hair- to which Lexa scowled. “ Genius billionaire Lena Luthor just got hacked, on the first try, by a literal child. I have to text like five different people.” She shook her head and chuckled as if she couldn’t believe it.   
Lexa rolled her eyes, “seriously mom? At least it’s not Streaky.” Lexa remembered figuring out her mother’s password almost immediately after hearing about the old cat, and being shocked to find that it was universal- there wasn’t anything Lexa couldn’t get into using the name.   
Alex burst into laughter, Lexa following not long after with her own giggling. From her aunt’s laughter and her mother’s wide eyes, she could see that even in this timeline her mother was the worst at computer security. The red-haired agent swiped at tears in her eyes, unable to stop laughing at her poor sister. “I like this kid,” she wheezed, clapping her niece on the back.   
“It’s a good password!” Kara argued, offended at her daughter revealing her secrets. She looked at the aforementioned daughter pointedly, “I would ask why you even have those passwords in the first place- but I have a feeling I don’t want to know.”   
Lexa beamed at her mom, turning back towards the computer to begin sifting through the files. There were hundreds of them, and there were three hard drives full of her mother’s blueprints and lab reports. She knew what she needed was there- somewhere, in one of those files- and she was going to find it. Her aunt sat next to her, combing through the DEO reports that they had on L Corp. Her mother stood leaning over her shoulder, her eyes scanning over the files as Lexa went through them herself.   
She was going to beat this. She could find her mother’s notes on time travel, she could recreate the tech- and she could bring her mom back.


	5. Chapter 5

0-CHAPTER FIVE=  
It had taken thirteen days.  
Her mother’s blueprints had been complicated, the messy scrawl scattered and incoherent even at it’s best. (Lena had never been praised for her handwriting skills. “Unlike your mother, I simply don’t have the time to print out each letter” she would always say.) Lexa and Kara had to spend hours deciphering the older Luthor’s writing alone, and she was sure they had still gotten most of it wrong. Lexa also found herself improvising more than anything- not having her usual access to the L Corp tech that she needed. She’d even had to create completely new tools herself- with her aunt’s help of course, who apparently “didn’t trust a teenager with a soldering iron”.  
The pressure on her had been intense- Lexa’s memory fading faster than they had thought it would. She could remember most things- but the details that escaped her were becoming more and more relevant. What her house looked like- where she went to school, anything she hadn’t needed to remember since everything disappeared. The only memories she could hold on to were the ones in front of her- her mother, her aunt, Lena- getting back to them. She needed to finish the machine before she forgot how to make it, which meant long days in the DEO lab and even longer nights. Lexa worked herself to the bone, and in thirteen days-  
She’d finally done it.  
It was late, and Lexa found herself working on the machine by herself. She sat on the floor, tools and screws scattered around her as she fiddled with it. Her aunt sat a few feet away from her at one of the white lab tables, pen in hand and expression full of concentration. The end of the week’s DEO reports surrounding her. In this timeline, she had still managed to become the director. It was a comfort to Lexa, to see her aunt filing reports and keeping the place running as she usually did. Her mother had left only an hour before then, having been called out to some civilian fire across town that only Supergirl could handle. (Lexa almost asked to go with her, only to sadly remember that this dimension knew nothing about Illuria or even Lexa Danvers.) She had kissed the top of her daughter’s head and changed into her suit, leaving with the promise of returning with dinner (thank Rao they still had Lexa’s favorite potsticker place in this dimension).  
She had improvised on the machine this time more than the others- fixing the DEO portal machine around her mother’s time reactor, rather than trying to fit the reactor into the machine’s circuit board. It was tricky, and she’d basically had to rebuild the entirety of the portal- but, if there was one thing Lena had taught her it was that science was just one guess after another until you could get something to stick. Lexa just hoped this was the time it would stick.  
Spoiler alert- it was.  
She stood up, her back aching from hunching over the machine all day. She eyed the machine’s main switch, as if maybe glaring at it enough will make it work the way she wanted. She had tried this before- her previous attempts throughout the week proving to be fruitless. Her first portal swirled dark red, her second fryed the peach she tossed into it to bits, her third refused to turn on at all- and she didn’t even want to think about her fourth. At this rate, she could have to go through a hundred portals before she would get home- and she didn’t have that kind of time. She hesitantly reached toward the switch, making the last move to flip it on before she could change her mind.  
The machine hummed to life, clunking and whirring until a faint light appeared. Just like a normal portal, the blue and white rays began swirling- opening, hopefully, into another timeline. She inspected it- it looked like a regular portal, no discernable features that made it different from the DEO portals she had seen before. She tried to remember any details she could about her mother’s portal. Lena had only had it for a short amount of time, but she could have sworn she’d caught a glimpse of it before the Legion had hauled it off. Her memories of it were hazy, not clear enough to get any reliable information from. So- she would just have to hope that she had done it this time.  
She turned to the peaches spread atop the lab table, briefly glancing at her aunt. Alex had paid her no mind, her head deep in paperwork and completely unaware of the live portal not even ten feet away from her. Her hand closing around a peach, Lexa carefully picked it up and started towards the portal. This was their tester- sending the peach through the portal rather than risking losing one of their own arms.  
She dipped the peach into the portal, swirling blue swelling around only half of the pink fruit. So far- nothing. She pulled the peach back towards her, and- nothing. In her hand she held the same peach, seemingly unharmed by it’s journey. She tossed it into the air, watching it carefully as it soared and fell back into her hand. She turned it over, inspecting it for any possible bruising or discoloration. Nothing. Finally, she held the peach up to her mouth, biting into it.  
Tasted like a regular, run-of-the-mill peach.  
Lexa let her eyes wander from the fruit in her hand to the portal, doing this a few times as the gears in her mind turned. Had she done it? She raised her hand carefully, and in a snap decision, thrust it through the portal. Do first, be sorry about what you did later.  
It didn’t hurt- there were no tingling feelings or objects in her way. Just her hand, held out into the air-when she pulled it back, it had no differences. She thought for a moment, trying to rule out any dangers that could possibly come from entering the portal. Then, after taking a deep breath- she stuck her head through.  
It was evening- the sun having already set and the sky a dark blue. The same time that it was in the timeline Lexa had come from. As she stepped through the portal with the rest of her body, she was hit with a feeling of nostalgia. Her converse landed on the sidewalk- and when she looked around she began to recognize where she was. The familiar street signs, the familiar shops- 1st avenue and Jefferson street. She looked to her left to confirm, her eyes scanning over the pizza shop that was all too familiar to the Luthor-Danvers household. The same shop her mother had taken her to every Friday after school when she was younger.  
She ran to it’s door, to the multicolored plastic bins that stood just outside it. She hastily opened the latch of the first one she came to- a yellow bin filled with “The National City Weekly”. Her eyes scanned over it- October 18, 2019.  
She was home.  
She scrambled around for more- memories flooding her brain like a tsunami. She took in everything she could, each new detail becoming even more confirming and reassuring. For weeks she had felt her mind slowly wandering- forgetting where she had come from more and more with each passing day. In this dimension, she felt the details coming back to her- as if she were a faulty computer that had just needed to be rebooted. Everything around her only assured her that her home wasn’t lost- that she didn’t have to be lost.  
Her feet hit the ground running before she could even comprehend where she was going- newspaper dropped to the ground and quickly forgotten.  
She ran to the park- shoes slapping against the pavement as she went. She found that the city was mostly empty- probably due to the time- and the only faces she met were those of random onlookers. They paid no mind to her, and she didn’t stop to mind them either. She didn’t stop until she found it- the large expanse of green in the city’s center. The National City Park was easily navigable, and she found the spot almost immediately. A small area full of statues and trees.  
It was gone.  
The hideous statue, depicting her mother and that horrid daxamite- was gone. Replaced with the small stone fountain that she had known to be there her entire life.  
She had done it. Her eyes welled up with tears- the past thirteen days had been torture, not knowing if she would ever be able to get back to her timeline. If she could stop her world from disappearing, or even herself from fading from existence. She’d lost her friends, her family- her mom. And now… she could have it all back. This was her fighting chance, her golden opportunity to get her life back.  
“Lexa!”  
Lexa’s head whipped around at the call of her name, shouted at her abruptly with no warning. A figure was running toward her at surprising speed, and she let out a sigh of relief at the familiar sight of her aunt bounding towards her.  
Her look was panicked, and Lexa immediately felt guilty for running through the portal the way she did- without any word to the older woman about what she was doing. Knowing her aunt, she probably had given the older woman a heart attack, or a minor stroke at best.  
“Alexandra Danvers!” the red-haired woman huffed out at her, having finally reached the teenager. Lexa readied herself for a scolding, a lecture over how irresponsible she was for heading through an unknown portal- but, to her surprise, her aunt only pulled her in by her shoulders. Lexa relaxed immediately, returning her aunt’s embrace. “Don’t you ever do that again- god, you almost gave me a heart attack! Running through an untested portal like that- what were you thinking?”  
“I’m sorry,” Lexa answered lamely, her voice smaller than she’d meant it to be. Her heart was pounding in her ears, adrenaline rushing through her from the events that had unfolded before her. It was definitely not the first time her aunt had given her this speech- and she had never liked hearing it.  
“It’s okay,” her aunt sighed, smiling at her sadly, “just- don’t make it a habit, huh? I have a feeling that in your timeline I have a lot more gray hairs…” Lexa giggled, smiling back at her aunt and shrugging- she was right. There was no trouble in the world that she and her cousins hadn’t gotten themselves into. Alex took a step back and took in her surroundings, the tall trees of the park and the statue that her niece had been facing before she’d found her. “Son of a bitch,” she chuckled, noticing the absence of her sister’s statue- erected many years ago after she and Mon-El had become National City’s super hero duo, “you did it, didn’t you?”  
Lexa beamed, taking the chance to impress her aunt while she could. It wasn’t that Alex wasn’t a proud aunt in her own timeline- but, it was harder to impress a woman who watched you grow. Having a niece engineered by two geniuses could only impress her for so long- not to mention her own MIT bound son and Clark’s son Jon on his way to being the next superman. Her aunt ran a team of genetically enhanced teenagers, so Lexa didn’t blame her for being hard to impress.  
“I have a chance, Alex,” she smiled, overjoyed at the results of the well worked on portal. “If I do this right… I’m saved.”  
Alex smiled back at her, squeezing with the hand on her shoulder.  
“As excited as I am for you to parent trap your mothers and save us all- your mom would kill both of us if you don’t say goodbye.” Lexa nodded, taking one last look around before heading back with her aunt. “Not to mention you left a random portal in the middle of downtown.”


End file.
